The free Google Maps app is available in more than 40 countries and 29 languages, Google said in a blog posting. Google was widely expected to introduce its own app after the version of Apple’s iOS mobile software released in September excluded its popular built-in tool.

Critics faulted Apple’s new application for unreliable landmark searches, routes that get users lost and lack of public transit directions, prompting Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook to issue a rare apology to consumers. Google’s map had been installed on every Apple tablet and smartphone since the iPhone’s debut in 2007.

“It’s embarrassing for Apple to reuse Google’s map application as it suggests Apple failed to meet market expectations,” said Hwang Min-Seong, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Samsung Securities Co. “This shows how much harder Apple had to push itself to come up with great innovations, only for it to end up as a big mistake.”

Apple’s shares slipped 1 percent to $533.80 at 9:37 a.m. in New York, while Google advanced 1.5 percent to $707.99.

IOS, Android

Tom Neumayr, a spokesman at Apple, declined to comment.

Cupertino, California-based Apple added new features such as turn-by-turn navigation and fly-over views of landscapes into its program. IOS software runs iPhones and iPads, which compete with smartphones and tablets running Google’s Android operating system. Mountain View, California-based Google is also the owner of the world’s most-popular search engine.

“People around the world have been asking for Google Maps on iPhone,” the company said in the blog post. “Starting today, we’re pleased to announce that Google Maps is here.”

Apple is seeking to build confidence in iOS amid a growing battle with Google, which provides the Android platform to mobile-phone makers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. for free.

Booming demand for Android-based smartphones is helping Google add share at the expense of other software providers, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said Dec. 11 in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York.

Android snared 72 percent of the market in the third quarter, while Apple had 14 percent, according to Gartner Inc. Customers are activating more than 1.3 million Android devices a day, Schmidt said.